Open to adults of all ages, SI’s Contemporary Art Topics (CAT) program is a free, discussion-based course designed to investigate current themes and issues being explored by living artists today. Thematically based and artist-led, these two-hour synchronous virtual classes introduce concepts and ideas in contemporary art through lectures, guest artist talks, class discussions, “slow looking” at art, and individual and group activities, as well as opportunities to share student artwork.

CAT takes place three times a year: winter/spring, summer, and fall.

In addition to weekly Zoom sessions, each season of classes will include one or two trips in-person in NYC for local students.

Past program topics include: the four elements in contemporary art, contemporary artists creating urban space interventions, regenerative life cycles in artmaking, materials and processes, use of color in contemporary art practice, history of color materiality and symbolism, wandering as art, craft and folk arts, ritual in art, the intersection of art and ecology, art as food/food as art, public and socially engaged art, and preservation and artistic legacy.

Course Theme

How do we feel and experience “light” as a matter of being through an environmental and conceptual context? Where do we perceive it in the world and in acts of making and creation?

The theme for this season of Swiss Institute’s Contemporary Art Topics is centered on light - both how we perceive it from light sources and how it manifests in gravity, air, matter, architectural space, movement, embodiment, mental states, spirituality, and other aligned aspects of existence. Artists such as Robert Irwin and Dan Flavin famously pioneered the use and play of light sources in American contemporary art. Others, like Rosemary Mayer and Maren Hassinger, developed work that physically and conceptually conveyed a sense of light through gravity and movement. Through art making, observation, and sharing, we will investigate these concepts deeply - connecting them to our personal experiences and reflecting upon how we might manifest light in our lives, our practices, and in the world.

We will look at a diverse range of contemporary artists, including Robert Irwin, David Lamelas, Jonathan Boskovich, Senga Nengudi, Maren Hassinger, Christine Sun Kim, Kelly Akashi, Melvin Edwards, and Rosemary Mayer, among others.

Requirements

Open to students ages 18 and up.

This course is free to attend, though we ask students to be able to commit to a majority of Zoom sessions for a given season.

Details and Registration

Classes will meet on Thursdays between October 15 and December 12, 2026 for 8 virtual sessions, plus 2 in-person trips in NYC on select Saturdays for local students for a total of 10 classes.

Online sessions meet from 10:00am - 12:00pm EST.

This class is facilitated by Lead Educator, Julia Norton.

For questions, please email education@swissinstitute.net.

Access Statement

In this program we will take occasional trips around the city and may be seated or standing for a significant amount of time. Transportation to non-Swiss Institute trip sites is offered via car from and back to SI.

All Zoom meetings are enabled with automated captioning and transcription options.